IBEW Local 1 (St. Louis) Offers New Bosnian Immigrants Training for High-Paying Jobs

Immigrant Bosnians give local labor trades a boost
By Jeffrey Tomich, Of the Post-Dispatch, Thursday, Mar. 03 2005

Milan Todorovic's story isn't unlike thousands of other Bosnians who moved to
St. Louis over the last decade. He lived in Germany for most of the 1990s while
war raged in and around his native Teslic, a small mill town 150 miles north of
Sarajevo, then emigrated to the United States almost five years ago on the
advice of a friend in Phoenix.

Also like many of the other estimated 35,000 Bosnians who now call St. Louis
home, Todorovic works in construction. He's a trim carpenter and member of
Carpenter's Local 417, who spends his day applying crown molding and wood trim
to sprawling new custom houses in Chesterfield and Ladue.

While St. Louis has about 50,000 construction workers, there is perpetually a
need for more, industry leaders say. And Bosnians who landed in the city over
the last decade in search of high-paying jobs - many of them already skilled
carpenters or electricians - have helped meet the demand.

"Quite a few of them come over here with several trades or degrees," said John
Gaal, director of training and work force development for the Carpenters
District Council of Greater St. Louis. "All of them are great hands. They have
a great work ethic, and they're great craftsmen."

There are so many Bosnian construction workers that PRIDE, a St. Louis labor
organization, is in the process of adding a link to its Web site to translate
the content into Croatian. Gaal said 41 of an estimated 2,000 students enrolled
in the training program are Bosnian. No one keeps track of area-wide employment
by nationality, but the construction industry is believed to be among the
largest employers of Bosnians in St. Louis.

The city's Bosnian population is second only to Chicago's, said Beth Radtke of
the International Institute, a nonprofit agency in St. Louis that helps
immigrants learn English, find jobs and start their own businesses.

The International Institute was among the organizations that sponsored
thousands of Bosnian refugees who moved to St. Louis from 1993 to 2003. More
are coming still, relocating from Chicago or New York because they have
relatives here or because housing here is more affordable, Radtke said.

For Todorovic, 37, and his family, the opportunity to move to the United States
was one he couldn't pass up, even if it meant leaving extended family behind.
"Going back to a broken country wasn't an option," he said.

Todorovic and other Bosnians say they face a common obstacle in adjusting to
their new lives and new jobs: English.

"The language barrier is the biggest issue," said Muhamed Muminovic, 22, who
helped his 43-year-old father, Muzafir Muminovic, start a home remodeling
business from their south St. Louis house last year.

The family emigrated to St. Louis almost four years ago from Split, Croatia, a
city on the Adriatic Sea. After seven years in Germany, they returned to
Croatia for three years, but odd jobs helping patch together homes damaged
during the war didn't pay well enough to maintain the living standard to which
they'd become accustomed.

Today, the father-and-son team runs Multi Construction Services from the
family's small home off Gravois Avenue. They advertise only by word of mouth
and the blue logo on their white van. Sometimes, Muzafir Muminovic learns of
jobs at Cafe Bolero, where Bosnian plumbers, masons and other tradesmen gather
for coffee each morning.

"Like every beginning, it's hard, but it's getting easier now," said Muhamed
Muminovic, who helps his father handle paperwork and sometimes serves as a
translator.

Muzafir Muminovic, who has worked in construction for almost 20 years, said he
takes almost any job, from interior remodeling to roofing and installing
floors. He taught himself about the building code and picked up new skills by
reading repair books from Home Depot.

Not only are Bosnians making their presence felt in the city's construction
industry, they're also becoming fixtures in the city's labor unions. Todorovic,
the carpenter, is even teaching Occupational Safety and Health
Administration-mandated safety training classes in Croatian for groups of
Bosnian immigrants.

Many Bosnian newcomers, including Adnan Mahmutovic, 27, from the small town of
Zvornik in eastern Bosnia, initially took factory jobs or other lower-paying
construction jobs to get on their feet. Later, they honed their skills as
electricians, carpenters and plumbers through union-run apprenticeship
programs.

"You came to this country with two suitcases and you needed a job right away,
so you took whatever you could get," Mahmutovic said. He and countryman Renato
Eterovic, 37, later joined the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Local 1 after some initial reluctance and doubts about whether they'd be
accepted as immigrants who spoke with an accent.

After two years as journeymen electricians at Sachs Electric, the program
enabled them to qualify for better benefits and wages, part of which they send
back to family in Bosnia.

"It was the best thing we ever did," he said.

Reporter Jeffrey Tomich
E-mail: jtomich@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8320